This invention relates generally to an electrostatographic copier and/or printer, and more particularly concerns a cleaning apparatus.
Detoning rolls (e.g. anodized aluminum detoning rolls) for single and dual mini ESB (electrostatic brush) cleaners have been shown to be unable to remove the toner from the brush as rapidly as the brush removes the toner from the imaging surface (e.g. photoreceptor). As a result, the toner builds up in the brush. This build up of toner in the cleaner brush reduces the cleaning efficiency of the brush and redeposits toner back onto the photoreceptor. This low cleaning efficiency has been shown to occur at process speeds of 11.9 ips, with either very low or very high toner inputs.
The following disclosures may be relevant to various aspects of the present invention and may be briefly summarized as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,344 to Gerbasi et al. discloses a cleaning method and apparatus that provides lubrication to a secondary detoning roll in a cleaner brush system, thus reducing cleaning failures. The toner particles removed from the first detoning roll are transported to the second detoning roll and reduces the wear problem of the second detoning roll due to lack of lubrication. The biased detoning rolls are located in adjacent proximity to the biased brushes to enable the detoning rolls to electrostatically remove toner from the brush fibers. The detoning rolls rotate in the same direction as that of the cleaner brushes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,863 to Laing discloses a toner removal device for removing residual toner and debris from a charge retentive surface after transfer of toner images from the surface. This device is characterized by the use of a pair of detoning rolls, one for removing toner from a biased cleaner brush and the other for removing debris such as paper fibers and Kaolin from the brush. The rolls are electrically biased so that one of them attracts toner from the brush while the other one attracts debris. Thus, the toner can be reused without degradation of copy quality while the debris can be discarded.